Hi, folks. My first posting since "the changes." This is the kind of topic where the DXers that some of the business-only types that post to this board like to scoff at, can shed some light on the changes to signal propagation that we're experiencing with more stations being jammed on top of each other in the Puget Sound region.
Don't get me wrong. I think there is a need for more variety in ownership and programming. A lot more than a handful of national corporations have a right to be broadcasters. LPFM seems like a good option for radio hobbyists to have their own "shows." But the prolific national religious sat-casters have already built an empire that's forcing these ridiculous frequency assignments for newcomers to LPFM. I won't hold my breath for anyone at the FCC to have the courage to reign them all in. Remember the fuss religious broadcasters (when there were far fewer of them) created over the "Lansman-Milam Act" in the 1970s? That really would have made room for a variety of minority-interest stations, instead of the glut of fundamentalist religion that crowds out other possibilities on the dial in most of the country.
But authorizing all of this squeezing-in is having a bigger effect on the dial than a few miles from a low power transmitter. Especially around Seattle and north, with hilly terrain and salt water to help signals travel beyond the neat radius you see diagrammed on paper. For an example of how much further damage new signals can cause beyond what seems plausible in theory, try listening to 88.9 anywhere in Snohomish, Skagit, or even Whatcom Counties. It used to be a solid signal from Victoria on the equivalent of what's considered a full "class C" signal on this side of the border. Their site is barely 50 miles away from new stations on the same frequency. Without all of this interference, the Victoria station has enough tower height to get a good signal out for 100 miles. Yet, American stations have cut it back to no more than 30 miles of listanble signal to the east. Adding KPLK in Sedro-Woolley on the same frequency, and then letting it increase power right after it came on the air, and then adding a Spanish-language religious translator in Everett on 88.9, you'll find those other stations have reduced the Victoria signal to miles and miles of hiss and hash and sputters. Roads I drive with a clear shot to Victoria no longer bring in a steady signal from Canada on 88.9, like it did a year ago. Instead, I get bits of KPLU's repeater, and the Everett newbie, mixing in with the Mercer Island high school station, and somewhere in the mix, 88.9 from Victoria, in a glorious unlistenable mess for miles.
Last year, I listened regularly to Espace Musique on 88.9 from Victoria (sorry, don't recall the call letters) clearly on my kitchen radio in Shoreline, and enjoyed their most of their French language programming. Really nice classical and jazz programs, too. But now, 88.9 is a complete mess both at home and in the car on routes facing the water, where it used to come in like gangbusters.
I think the FCC doesn't care as much about signal integrity as it does scoring points with Congress on aiding the concept of adding more minority stations to the FM roster, even if few people can really ever hear them. It makes it look like they're addressing an audience need on paper, even if in reality there's very little coverage for the new stations, or the ones they're jumping on top of anymore.
It seems that you can pick any freq. used by a Canadian station, and get a new license around here! I guess if they don't show up on the Radio-Locator database, they don't exist! The wisdom of the protocol where most Vancouver and Victoria stations were evenly spaced as second adjacents with Seattle assignments, seems to have gotten lost in a world where any coverage beyond 20 or 30 miles is considered up for grabs. But the extra noise these added signals create for surprisingly long distances, might be a new lesson in how radio waves really travel. Turns out you really can jam a medium-strong FM signal without much effort. Unless there are transmitter issues in Victoria exacerbating this (they have been known to be slow to fix them), I'm finding the example of what's happened to 88.9 fewer to be another reason I listen to less radio than I used to, and am eager for internet radio in my car.
I doubt anyone 20 or 40 years ago, when FM assignments were filling up the dial, could have ever imagined the lack of signal protections that are chewing up signals. And more on the way! If that's the way it's going to be, why not have everyone reduce to "class A" power, and give up on wider coverage across the board, to squeeze even more "stations" in? Mt. Vernon and Everett could become their own markets with dozens of local signals on top of what you used to get from Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle! And, ironically, instead of making for a stronger radio industry, the mush drives even more listeners away from FM as well as AM. I can't imagine there will be more than a dozen listeners to the new Mukilteo station. I'd be willing to bet the rock station it's displacing on 100.3 has a measurable audience along the coast. But I think few people know how to register their disappointment when signals are covered up, and will opt to just go away and find something else to occupy their ears.
Someone a few months ago here or in Radio World proposed using the TV channel 5 and 6 bandwidth for an "open to all comers" section of the radio band. A designated zone where "pirates" and other LPFM interests can have at it, within designated power limits, perhaps without even being licensed. I like that idea. I think that's a strategy that would actually do a lot more to promote the stability of the radio industry than migrating a bunch of bottom-tier AM stations there. It would also allow for some breathing room between signals on the rest of the dial.
